Developing, maintaining or extending PostScript language code

The PostScript language may not be a mainstream coding language, but there are still many systems that use it for configuration and some functionality. If you are using, maintaining or extending such a system you may have found that PostScript can be rather intimidating or even incomprehensible to a typical C++, C# or Java programmer.

As an interpreted language running without the benefit of optimization from a compiler, executable PostScript code (that is, not just a static, hierarchical configuration) benefits significantly from efficient code construction, which is not usually what you get when a non-PostScript programmer is tasked with delivering it.

And most non-PostScript programmers will have never used a stack-based language before; good PostScript knowledge and use of error detection and handling code is vital to ensure that problems can be found and diagnosed quickly.

Martin Bailey has written many thousand lines of PostScript code for Harlequin RIP customers and as part of the RIP delivery. He’s available for assistance if you’re maintaining or extending systems using PostScript.